1 Semester 1 Week 1

1.1 Getting to know each other, topics, proposals

In the first session, the purpose is mainly to get to know each other - what topics are students interested in? We also have a look over what is required for the dissertation proposal and discuss what they can expect as part of supervision.

1.1.1 Introductions and topics

Everyone introduces themselves and the general topic/s that they are interested in. Do they have a fixed idea or are they still deciding? Do they know what approach they want to take, methodologically? Do they have any questions?

1.1.2 Format of supervision

I then discuss the general process of supervision
- Expectations I have (stated in the sway) and what students can expect from me
- Individual vs. group sessions (including how these differ, what the function of each is)
- Explain the importance of getting ethics done at an early stage in the process
- Discuss a general timeline of the project (everyone’s will look a bit different though)
  - Typically, intros are sent in December/early Jan, methods in Jan/Feb and Results or Analysis in Feb.
  - Sections can be sent together or separately.
  - Everyone should choose deadlines for each section and it will be added to the deadline spreadsheet.
  - I have a cut off for accepting drafts. This is usually two weeks before the deadline, so students should keep this in mind when setting deadlines (they should give themselves some wiggle room).
- Show the students the folder with dissertation resources I’ve gathered together. This will be everything covered in the group sessions, plus anything else that’s useful
- Show students the spreadsheet to track drafts etc. We’ll discuss possible deadlines in individual supervision
- They will have to juggle the dissertation alongside other courses, so will need to work consistently on it but also take advantage of the quieter periods to work on it.
Some things I cover, in terms of project management:
- It’s worth setting up a reference manager now if they don’t already use one (e.g. Zotero)
- Project management will be very important - there’s information on using Planner in the Moodle

1.1.3 Writing a proposal

Different supervisors have different ways of approaching the proposal - as most of the students working with me tend to do somewhat sensitive topics, I am very mindful of not delaying ethics too much and therefore ask them to work on the proposal and also make a start on ethics pretty soon after. But, they would need to have a very clear idea of the project and how they were going to set it up in this case.

Some things I discuss with students and ask them to think about:

Why are they conducting the study?
What do they want to find out? - What data will they need?
Who are they going to recruit? From where?
What would your RQ/hypotheses be?
If quant, what analysis would you do for each hypothesis?
If qual, how are you planning to analyse your data and why?

I also direct the students to the information on proposal writing on the Moodle (Level 4 Undergraduate)

1.1.4 Other things to cover

I show the students where the Level 4 moodle is (usually there are at least a few who aren’t aware of this)
I introduce the idea of deciding between College vs. intranet for ethics (will depend on their project)
Mention that one things I’m doing is building up a bank of data that future students can use. Ideally, I would like all projects that collect data to have an option in it for storage of the data and keeping it so students can analyse it in the future.

1.2 Internal resources

Specific to School of Psychology & Neuroscience: In the Level 4 moodle for the dissertation, Chiara has included a section called ‘Project Management & Time Saving Tools’. In this, there is information about the proposal, a proforma and also an example research proposal.